Elena is of the same descending priests bloodline I believe, and acts as the awakening source for Galbalan in the stead of Chester, her natural brother.
Would be pretty funny if it happens again in a similar manner.
I'm going to be receiving CS2 in about 4-5 days, so we'll see just how good my guesses are when things pan out. I'm glad someone told me about region switcher for saves. It's going to be interesting, taking my CS save, converting it to JPN, loading it into CS2 for bonuses, taking my CS2 final save, converting it back to NA so I can play the XSEED release on NG+ Nightmare lol
her love relationship to her brother (even though he doesn't seem to love her back in that way). Trails in the Sky already perfectly nailed the "love relationship between (adopted) siblings" trope and it's just annoying to see it brought up again, since it won't be able to be even remotely as good as Sky's anyway).
She also apologizes at the beginning of the very first chapter. Her being angry at Rean is such a tiny part of her character that I don't even think it's worth bringing up.
It's a terrible introduction trope and she continues to be mediocre at least through Ch. 3 (haven't played further). She is my least likely character so far competing for that role with Machias and Sarah, and winning that bottom spot. Jusis grew a bit on me though.
Her development is not written well, her revelations to the MC (who is also not super great being very bland and seemingly lacking a spinal column) are fairly hard to believe so soon and I really wish the game wouldn't keep shoving her forward.
Pitfalls of democracy can be similar to imperial and monarchy nations.
Zane said that the leaders are more concerned with protecting their own positions and bickering with one another rather than solving anything or something like that.
I was debating writing up a big thing about my thoughts about this game but it'd unintentionally have a negative flow to it because though I enjoyed this game quite a bit there were both a number of negative issues that kept cropping up with this game as well as some stuff that was just straight up mediocre that I see other people talk about and just kinda get confused how they loved it so much.
I'd rather not post a whole long impression that seems like it's bashing on the game because I honestly liked it a lot. But it was an 8 out of 10 to me and a lot of the weaker parts were actually either the characters, the pacing/script or really shitty quest/indicator systems. And not script as in the writing writing, which was solid, but the sheer onslaught of unnecessary text.
I also was lukewarm on the ending. It kicked off pretty awesome but then it turned into
White Knight Chronicles/Xenogears
and the tone and shift kinda turned me off.
I don't think I'll be playing this game again, much like Trails of the Sky 1+2. Both also games I thought were really good but always got really confused when people said they were amazing or a return to the good old days of jRPGs. Maybe in a couple years.
To end positively with things I liked about the game, I will say I loved messing with Orbments and characters to see what great parties I could make and found the combat very satisfying (outside of one or two fights, including the last boss). Also, amusingly, though I had a lot of problems with many of the other characters I actually didn't mind Rean so much mostly because though he was a pretty stock MC he got some great lines and much more awareness than most of that tropey type of MC.
I was debating writing up a big thing about my thoughts about this game but it'd unintentionally have a negative flow to it because though I enjoyed this game quite a bit there were both a number of negative issues that kept cropping up with this game as well as some stuff that was just straight up mediocre that I see other people talk about and just kinda get confused how they loved it so much.
I'd rather not post a whole long impression that seems like it's bashing on the game because I honestly liked it a lot. But it was an 8 out of 10 to me and a lot of the weaker parts were actually either the characters, the pacing/script or really shitty quest/indicator systems. And not script as in the writing writing, which was solid, but the sheer onslaught of unnecessary text.
I also was lukewarm on the ending. It kicked off pretty awesome but then it turned into
White Knight Chronicles/Xenogears
and the tone and shift kinda turned me off.
I don't think I'll be playing this game again, much like Trails of the Sky 1+2. Both also games I thought were really good but always got really confused when people said they were amazing or a return to the good old days of jRPGs. Maybe in a couple years.
To end positively with things I liked about the game, I will say I loved messing with Orbments and characters to see what great parties I could make and found the combat very satisfying (outside of one or two fights, including the last boss). Also, amusingly, though I had a lot of problems with many of the other characters I actually didn't mind Rean so much mostly because though he was a pretty stock MC he got some great lines and much more awareness than most of that tropey type of MC.
To be clear, there's a ton I love about the game, but it certainly has it's issues. I talk about the game a lot more in a positive light because I just personally prefer talking more about what I like about games than what I dislike about them, unless I obviously dislike the game itself. I don't know what this "good old days of JRPGs" is supposed to mean, but the Trails games are just really good JRPGs.
I'm also not big on assigning numbers or scores to games either.
To be clear, there's a ton I love about the game, but it certainly has it's issues. I talk about the game a lot more in a positive light because I just personally prefer talking more about what I like about games than what I dislike about them, unless I obviously dislike the game itself. I don't know what this "good old days of JRPGs," but the Trails games are just really good JRPGs.
I'm also not big on assigning numbers or scores to games either.
I'm pretty positive about it too, it just occurred to me as I was thinking about it that almost every positive I had had a caveat to it or a "but" with something I didn't like. It wasn't like, huge flaws or anything, but all the small stuff just built up over time for me.
I talk about plenty of positive things and often do like focusing on those but when something bugs me, it bugs me.
I'm pretty positive about it too, it just occurred to me as I was thinking about it that almost every positive I had had a caveat to it or a "but" with something I didn't like. It wasn't like, huge flaws or anything, but all the small stuff just built up over time for me.
I talk about plenty of positive things and often do like focusing on those but when something bugs me, it bugs me.
My tolerance for something to bug me is pretty high so any minor issues really didn't hinder my personal enjoyment. There's certainly small issues here or there that I can totally see rubbing people the wrong way.
I'm pretty positive about it too, it just occurred to me as I was thinking about it that almost every positive I had had a caveat to it or a "but" with something I didn't like. It wasn't like, huge flaws or anything, but all the small stuff just built up over time for me.
I talk about plenty of positive things and often do like focusing on those but when something bugs me, it bugs me.
I feel like I excused a lot of the issues the game had because the characters and worldbuilding were miles above what I've come to expect from video game writing. There were plenty of character interactions that bugged me (Angelica, everyone loves Rean, creepy grandfather), but ultimately most of them are pretty minor drops in a giant sea of text.
I feel like I excused a lot of the issues the game had because the characters and worldbuilding were miles above what I've come to expect from video game writing. There were plenty of character interactions that bugged me (Angelica, everyone loves Rean, creepy grandfather), but ultimately most of them are pretty minor drops in a giant sea of text.
Yeah I have this similar attitude, sure there was stuff that bugged me in the game but I overall definitely enjoyed playing and was hooked on quite a lot of the most awesome stuff it had to offer. Sort of a similar caveat to what Oni was saying where there's a lot of "this is really great/cool, BUT there's that little thing..." going on.
If I were to compare it to other JRPGs I've played, especially recently, this one was the most fun easily.
I feel like I excused a lot of the issues the game had because the characters and worldbuilding were miles above what I've come to expect from video game writing. There were plenty of character interactions that bugged me (Angelica, everyone loves Rean, creepy grandfather), but ultimately most of them are pretty minor drops in a giant sea of text.
I feel like I excused a lot of the issues the game had because the characters and worldbuilding were miles above what I've come to expect from video game writing. There were plenty of character interactions that bugged me (Angelica, everyone loves Rean, creepy grandfather), but ultimately most of them are pretty minor drops in a giant sea of text.
I would say even then, those aspects of those characters that were presented were only a fraction of what they had going on. Angelica and Gwin (which you mentioned) both have some major things that have happened to them, and will probably happen to them in the next game too.
I would say even then, those aspects of those characters that were presented were only a fraction of what they had going on. Angelica and Gwin (which you mentioned) both have some major things that have happened to them, and will probably happen to them in the next game too.
No, Angelica is literally a super-perv 99% of the time. The rest is a fraction of her, which is all the more unfortunate, since she does have an interesting background & potential for more, if only more than 1% of what she said/did was related to something else than sexual innuendo/harassment towards underage girls or whoever is the the (non-underage) girl/woman the group is talking about at the time.
Okay guys, before you start grinding for warm egg soups to get that 1000 000 mira trophy, try selling all you stuff. I sold all of my sepith and weapons and consumeables and that was enough to get me up to 1 000 000 lol
I've also used the robot boss in Chapter 6 to grind for the Burst and impede trophy.
It's a straight shot to getting my second Platinum! (As long as I don't screw up the character trophies)
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
The regular enemy encounters are feeling way too drawn out for me, like I'm missing the right way to play or something. I know that special points regenerate, so I use a lot of arts and crafts, and link attacks don't seem to do a huge amount. How do I plow through these things as fast as possible?
The regular enemy encounters are feeling way too drawn out for me, like I'm missing the right way to play or something. I know that special points regenerate, so I use a lot of arts and crafts, and link attacks don't seem to do a huge amount. How do I plow through these things as fast as possible?
The regular enemy encounters are feeling way too drawn out for me, like I'm missing the right way to play or something. I know that special points regenerate, so I use a lot of arts and crafts, and link attacks don't seem to do a huge amount. How do I plow through these things as fast as possible?
Are you starting the fight with Advantage? This is critical for making the monster fights very trivial.
If you're early on in the game, which I assume you are:
Just buffing with say, Motivate from Rean and then going to town on enemies with regular attacks and large scale crafts is good enough. Buffs are king in this game from beginning to end. Make sure you have quartz on that buffs your stats, the difference is pretty noticeable.
Are you starting the fight with Advantage? This is critical for making the monster fights very trivial.
If you're early on in the game, which I assume you are:
Just buffing with say, Motivate from Rean and then going to town on enemies with regular attacks and large scale crafts is good enough. Buffs are king in this game from beginning to end. Make sure you have quartz on that buffs your stats, the difference is pretty noticeable.
The regular enemy encounters are feeling way too drawn out for me, like I'm missing the right way to play or something. I know that special points regenerate, so I use a lot of arts and crafts, and link attacks don't seem to do a huge amount. How do I plow through these things as fast as possible?
The regular enemy encounters are feeling way too drawn out for me, like I'm missing the right way to play or something. I know that special points regenerate, so I use a lot of arts and crafts, and link attacks don't seem to do a huge amount. How do I plow through these things as fast as possible?
The best method to get money is just to play through the game, then when you get to the end of your second playthrough, save, sell everything to hit the 1 mil (you should probably have about 400-500k by the end of your nightmare run), then quit and load up your save. Alternatively, finish your second playthrough and choose the perk that'll give you 300k bonus.
The method your doing is the fastest, but I wouldn't call it the most optimal.
It's great when you need a little bit of money. about an hour and a half - 2 hours and I have about 300k roughly. (from about 10 - 20k or so)
That said, just do what the above person said, sell everything and then see how much you have. If it's not too much left then just use the soup method until 1m otherwise complete the playthrough and get the 300k bonus perk.
The best method to get money is just to play through the game, then when you get to the end of your second playthrough, save, sell everything to hit the 1 mil (you should probably have about 400-500k by the end of your nightmare run), then quit and load up your save. Alternatively, finish your second playthrough and choose the perk that'll give you 300k bonus.
The method your doing is the fastest, but I wouldn't call it the most optimal.
No, Angelica is literally a super-perv 99% of the time. The rest is a fraction of her, which is all the more unfortunate, since she does have an interesting background & potential for more, if only more than 1% of what she said/did was related to something else than sexual innuendo/harassment towards underage girls or whoever is the the (non-underage) girl/woman the group is talking about at the time.
No, Angelica is literally a super-perv 99% of the time. The rest is a fraction of her, which is all the more unfortunate, since she does have an interesting background & potential for more, if only more than 1% of what she said/did was related to something else than sexual innuendo/harassment towards underage girls or whoever is the the (non-underage) girl/woman the group is talking about at the time.
nah, i would replace her with a random class VII party member any day if i could.
she was so cool as a party member. her fight style, her artwork, everything. i don't know why falcom gave them all traits that turn everyone into a caricature for a time. hers was as annoying as every other party member. millium was full-on caricature til the end, can't salvage that. she had her fun moments too when she caused ruckus or in some of her bonding events, for example
. at least she wasn't boring like certain other members.
The regular enemy encounters are feeling way too drawn out for me, like I'm missing the right way to play or something. I know that special points regenerate, so I use a lot of arts and crafts, and link attacks don't seem to do a huge amount. How do I plow through these things as fast as possible?
Thinking about getting this. I didn't enjoy Trails in the Sky due to lack of character time and the cast feeling pretty bland and one note. Is this better in that regard? Is it different enough that I could enjoy even though I didn't enjoy TITS?
Thinking about getting this. I didn't enjoy Trails in the Sky due to lack of character time and the cast feeling pretty bland and one note. Is this better in that regard? Is it different enough that I could enjoy even though I didn't enjoy TITS?
Er, if "one note" is a problem, this game is going to drive you crazy.
Also, you won't be able to enjoy Zero and Ao no Kiseki in the future, they're similarly styled to Sky in terms of how characters interact.
So... you'd be playing one sub-part of a gigantic series that you may or may not like with no way of catching up since you'll have to skip over the others. If that's your rodeo, ride the horse, but if it was up to me, I wouldn't force myself.
Er, if "one note" is a problem, this game is going to drive you crazy.
Also, you won't be able to enjoy Zero and Ao no Kiseki in the future, they're similarly styled to Sky in terms of how characters interact.
So... you'd be playing one sub-part of a gigantic series that you may or may not like with no way of catching up since you'll have to skip over the others. If that's your rodeo, ride the horse, but if it was up to me, I wouldn't force myself.
Is there plenty of character interaction though? Do they all remain together? One of the problems with Sky was the constantly switching cast of characters. I enjoyed the world and story. I just found the characters lacking.
Edit: I'm okay with one note characters as long as they have ample screen time to get connected with them.
Is there plenty of character interaction though? Do they all remain together? One of the problems with Sky was the constantly switching cast of characters. I enjoyed the world and story. I just found the characters lacking.
Did you play SC? There's much more character interactions in that game. FC was mostly Joshua and Estelle, but in SC you'll rarely be in a situation where you have less than 4 characters in a party (outside of the tutorial/prologue obviously)
Did you play SC? There's much more character interactions in that game. FC was mostly Joshua and Estelle, but in SC you'll rarely be in a situation where you have less than 4 characters in a party (outside of the tutorial/prologue obviously)
I have yet to play it. I was turned off by the crappy romance of Sky. I loved the sibling relationship they had, the change to that killed my interest in playing the second.
Edit: it's probably not fair of me to judge characters that are set to appear in multiple games though, when I've just played one game. Maybe I'll play SC it makes me feel judgemental when I think about it.
I have yet to play it. I was turned off by the crappy romance of Sky. I loved the sibling relationship they had, the change to that killed my interest in playing the second.
If that's your breaking point, then probably stay away from SC, and maybe even CS. There's much less of a focus on it, but there's still some bits of "sister that has a crush on the adopted brother" in it that pissed off a decent number of people in here.
Is there plenty of character interaction though? Do they all remain together? One of the problems with Sky was the constantly switching cast of characters. I enjoyed the world and story. I just found the characters lacking.
Characters switch in and out all the time in Steel. It's part of the game that your class splits up for field studies and then the game usually focuses on one character during this time in a smaller sub-group.
Then during free times, Rean is alone and has to seek out characters to talk to.
If you found the characters lacking though, I don't know what to tell you, because if there's one thing every Kiseki game is consistent over, it's how characters interact. I feel like Cold Steel dropped the ball in the "individual growth" department, but Cold Steel's character deployment is pretty much identical to how FC/SC handles it, especially SC with party swapping.
I have yet to play it. I was turned off by the crappy romance of Sky. I loved the sibling relationship they had, the change to that killed my interest in playing the second.
Edit: it's probably not fair of me to judge characters that are set to appear in multiple games though, when I've just played one game. Maybe I'll play SC it makes me feel judgemental when I think about it.
Fuck it, I'll just replay through the game up to chapter 3. It should only take about 2 hours if I set it to easy and can just skip all the bonding/side quests.
Still fucking annoying since I really wanted to start digimon tonight.
No, but battles the addition of pressing the start button to skip animations and the speed of combat itself makes the battles fly by. Especially compared to Trails in the Sky.
Could be worse, I failed to realize that you had to talk to someone at the end of the game for one of two Quartz until I was halfway through NG+... and also didn't realize that there was a trophy to open every chest. In my NG+ I realized towards a boss that I never went and got a certain chest, looked up what it was and it was one of those Master Quartz unless you already got it things, "I DON'T NEED THAT!"
Could be worse, I failed to realize that you had to talk to someone at the end of the game for one of two Quartz until I was halfway through NG+... and also didn't realize that there was a trophy to open every chest. In my NG+ I realized towards a boss that I never went and got a certain chest, looked up what it was and it was one of those Master Quartz unless you already got it things, "I DON'T NEED THAT!"
Bonding Events for the character notes can't all be got in a single playthrough as well. Not to mention, my second playthrough on Nightmare (which I'd never have bothered with on a first run, hell no), ended just a little over 100 hours for the Trails in the Couch trophy (100+ hours played).
So 2 full playthroughs was pretty much a necessity for the plat.
falcom are shit with trophies. that chest thing was already bad in celceta, but at least you could backtrack there. they love to turn everything into a missable. so if you're into this kind of thing, get ready for punishment. there's also no way to keep track of chests unless you use an external checklist. some enemies only appear in optional sidequests. if you fail to analyze them --> goodnight. give them 15 years to make this stuff more enjoyable.
Could be worse, I failed to realize that you had to talk to someone at the end of the game for one of two Quartz until I was halfway through NG+... and also didn't realize that there was a trophy to open every chest. In my NG+ I realized towards a boss that I never went and got a certain chest, looked up what it was and it was one of those Master Quartz unless you already got it things, "I DON'T NEED THAT!"
Damn. I'd have probably stopped right there tbh. That's why I try to look up the whole trophy list and remember the really missable things to do on a NG+ run.
falcom are shit with trophies. that chest thing was already bad in celceta, but at least you could backtrack there. they love to turn everything into a missable. so if you're into this kind of thing, get ready for punishment. there's also no way to keep track of chests unless you use an external checklist. some enemies only appear in optional sidequests. if you fail to analyze them --> goodnight. give them 15 years to make this stuff more enjoyable.
It's not too bad tbh. Most of the trophies are fun, and chances are you're gonna have to do all the optional sidequests for a trophy anyway so you'll be seeing all of the sidequest monsters. The ingame tracker imo is a bigger annoyance than the trophies themselves. Telling me how many enemies there are in each separate area would be much more useful than telling me how many enemies there all in the entire game, which literally does nothing for me when there's a trophy that can tell me that.
The chest thing is annoying, but at least you can equip a quartz to see them all on the map.
Bonding Events for the character notes can't all be got in a single playthrough as well. Not to mention, my second playthrough on Nightmare (which I'd never have bothered with on a first run, hell no), ended just a little over 100 hours for the Trails in the Couch trophy (100+ hours played).
So 2 full playthroughs was pretty much a necessity for the plat.
